John Biscoe
Sea-Ice ReliefBase H - Signy Island Antarctica

Copyright - Crown, expired

A sea-ice relief where there sea-ice
is thick enough to allow unloading onto it for the cargo to be placed
on sledges and then driven back to base was the stuff of legend for
those of us who never experienced one.

Implicit in the phrase "sea-ice relief"
is that fact that there is thick strong sea ice in place until very
late in the season, into November or even December. In a poor or more
typical year, the sea ice could have broken up in September. For the
ice to be so thick that late also usually meant that it had to have
started to form earlier in the season, so the "sea-ice relief" itself
would have been the final decoration on an already substantial and well
iced cake (pun intended!)

This picture is one of a collection assembled in
2007 on the 60th anniversary of Signy Island Base: 60°43'S 045°36'W.
Thank you to those who sent their treasured memories of their time in
Antarctica and allowed them to be made into a commemorative cd and then
placed here on the web.